


Welcome to Nowhere

by JoAsakura



Series: Refuse/Refuge [7]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Canon, Soldier Boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 13:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9327422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/pseuds/JoAsakura
Summary: For Reaper76 Week, day 1: theme "How We Were/History"In a military installation that doesn't exist, two soldiers meet, and everything changes.





	

 

Many, many years ago:

"Once you pass through these doors, you will be read into the soldier enhancement program: Project Myrmidon." The woman in the black uniform said briskly. She wore no insignia, nothing that might indicate what branch of service she'd been in prior to appearing before them on the tarmac of an Unnamed Location in the middle of nowhere.

The wind blew hard, and Gabriel squinted at the bland, flat horizon looming in the distance. Kansas, maybe. Nebraska. He shifted, and watched a similar motion run through the others. They all wore plain grey and black sweats, no visible indicator of rank or service in the lot. But he had a good sense of the dogfaces and the swabbies, the jarheads and the zoomies. There were a couple weekend warriors in the mix, and he snorted.

He assumed they all had received the same instruction he had. No discussion at all. The blonde who'd sat next to him on the flight next to Alameda chewed the inside of his lip. Army. There was a crazy light to his bright blue eyes. Gabriel wondered how many buildings the idiot had jumped off of for fun.

"You were told by your commanding officers that participation in this project was voluntary. With that in mind, this is your last opportunity to exercise that right. Once you are read into project Myrmidon, you must remain for the duration of the program. If you choose to not participate, please make your way to the office to your right." She gestured at a trailer across the field.

"Once you are through these doors, your rank, for the duration of the program, your branch of service, even your names will become irrelevant." The woman in black continued. "I thank you in advance for your service."

~~

Men and women alike stripped down in the decontamination showers as their clothes and bags were whisked away. Gabriel glanced over again at the blonde, staring stoically at the tiled wall as the water beat down on him, darkening his sunny hair. "Ranger, huh?" He asked, getting a good look at the "death from above, Rangers 2nd Battalion" tarot card crudely tattooed on the man's pale arm. "Think you're up to this, Ranger Rick?"

Blue eyes flicked over at him, and the blonde grinned for a second. "I'm lookin' forward to kickin' yer ass Mister SEAL." He whispered back in a Midwestern drawl as flat as the landscape. He quickly prodded Gabriel's own ink of a trident and anchor, paused then scowled. "...sir."

"They said rank didn't matter here." Gabriel offered him the bar of bright orange, chemical-strong soap.

"I know an officer when I smell one, Sir." The blonde said flatly, taking the bar and lathering up.

~~

"Ranger Rick." Gabriel sat down with his bowl of greenish "superfood" porridge. Scant weeks had passed, and their shaved heads were growing back in a little too rapidly. Each of them had been awarded a bar code, tattooed at the base of their skulls with biometric tracking implants, designating their SEP signifier, and they itched. Everything itched all the time. "76?"

Endless rounds of training interspersed with treatments had become their only real sense of time. The occasional movie, magazines that were all at least a year old. No internet, no contact. Not even a fucking window. Their life outside seemed like a fantasy.

All told, he was pretty sure the reason they were in such a secure facility with no outside contact was because what the government was doing to them, no matter how many release forms and NDAs they signed, was absolutely unethical. Of the one hundred and two soldiers that had arrived at Fort Nowhere, Gabriel thought as he looked around the small dining hall, only a fraction remained, all of them ashy and miserable as retroviruses and nanomachines and therapeutic genetic restructuring- whatever the fuck that was- clanked around in their bodies. 76 looked even worse, eyes swollen, his lips split and dark red marks around his throat.

Battered blue eyes flicked up. "If it ain't Thirteen the SEAL, sir." He snorted, then spooned some more glop into his mouth.

"Control said they're moving you in with me." Gabriel tried to place the flavor as he ate. The closest he'd gotten was grass clippings. Even his lips itched. "Since 42 died."

"Yeah, 17's gone, too." 76 said, his voice dropping. "He'd been an astronaut, did you know that? He told me about space once, about looking down at the earth from the ISS."

"What happened?" Gabriel asked softly. They both paused, trying to find meaning in the glop.

"He started bashing his head into the wall after last night's round of treatments. Screamin' about voices in his head. I tried to stop him and he.." 76 trailed off and made a vague gesture at himself. "I... Defended myself." He said finally, in a voice so low Gabriel's enhanced hearing struggled with. "God help me, I killed him. He was screaming an' I couldn't breathe and I just had to..."

Gabe moved his hand, just a bit, so his knuckles brushed 76's. "You didn't do anything wrong. You.." He whispered.

"I feel like we're gonna die down here, sir." 76 said abruptly, staring at his bowl. "I been in a bunch of hot spots, and.. Well. You know, can't talk about it. " He laughed sadly. "Thought I was gonna die a whole bunch of times, and I was ok with it. Goin' down swinging. But I don't wanna die like this, not knowing where I am, or who we all were. I don't wanna die like this."

"Gabriel. I'm Gabriel Reyes." He gave 76 a little smile, trying not to scratch at an ever persistent itch on his skull. The blonde pressed his hand closer to Gabriel's and a small smile pulled at his mouth. "Grew up in L.A. Thought I wanted to be an actor, y'know? Turned out the world is not ready for the first double major in classical theatre and particle physics, so I deferred college to join the fuckin' Navy, y'know. Wanted to see the world, maybe figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up." Gabriel paused, hooking his pinky over 76's and gave him a small smile of his own. "I am not plannin' on dying here." He quieted as the researchers moved through the cafeteria to check on their charges and for a while, he and 76 ate in silence.

When the doctors left, 76 chuckled and scratched at his arms. "Morrison. John Morrison, but my friends, they call me Jack. Ain't nothin' special. Played a little ball, ran a little track. Failed a lot of classes. In the end, just didn't wanna die in Indiana." He licked his spoon thoughtfully. "I think this is Montana, an' to be brutally honest, I don't actually want to die in Montana either. It's a pleasure to meet you, Gabriel." The smile that lit his face made Gabriel's heart stutter for a moment.

"It's nice to meet you too, Jack." Gabriel grinned at him.

~~

Gabriel could still remember the first time they kissed. In their sparse room with the fake outdoor windows, he'd lay shuddering on the narrow bed, fever wracking his body as another round of accelerated changes ran through his cells.

Jack had bundled him in a blanket, and curled up against him, singing ridiculous metal songs like they were lullabies.

"You have a voice on you." Gabriel rasped, shivering in Jack's embrace. "You must've knocked 'em dead in your church choirs."

"Wasn't much for church." Jack laughed, humming against Gabriel's shoulder. "Before we did a drop, my guys would ask me to sing. 'Hey Sarge, sing us something, wouldja?' Tried to stump me with shit they thought I couldn't manage."

Gabriel lay silent in his arms for long minutes, then rolled over. "Something's been going on in control." He whispered. They were sure the rooms were bugged, monitored. It hadn't stopped Jack from jerking off in the bathroom, or Gabriel finding himself wishing he were in there too, but it made real talk difficult.

So he leaned in, let his lips brush Jack's, and he felt the Ranger's body stiffen beside him. "I think they're done with testing and war gaming us in between treatments." He said softly, threading his hands through Jack's close crop of soft hair. In return, Jack relaxed against him, eyes half closed. "I think we're moving out for real soon."

"They've seemed agitated, like durin' my last PT session. Distracted. Somethin's goin' on topside." Jack murmured back, and Gabriel was surprised, but not, when he pushed back into the fake kiss. "An' if I'm gonna be honest, if we're gonna die down here, I'm glad I got to kiss you, even if it's like this... Sir."

"You think you're hot shit, Ranger Rick?" Gabriel asked, teasing as he let Jack move on top of him. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I like cocky bastards and all, but..."

"Whatever happens, I got your back, Gabe." Jack said, serious. Then he brightened. "And I ain't a bastard, but cocky? I think you've seen me naked enough times to make your own conclusions there."

"That's not.." Gabriel blinked at him and then laughed, the discomfort and pain far away for a moment. "You have the dumbest sense of humour I've ever heard. You're crazy in training and you walk around naked like people want to actually see your stupid perky white ass. You literally have no redeeming qualities."

"When we get out of here, permission t'make you the best steak dinner you've ever had, and then you can decide on my redeeming qualities." Jack offered, as Gabriel moved the blankets enough to cover them both.

"Fair enough, Sarge. But you better bring your A Game with the beef." Gabriel drew him a little closer, his voice dropping as he found Jack's lips again. "And I got your back too. Whatever happens, we got this."

"We got this."


End file.
